Monkey DanceExplore Debugging

Group Size Time

Small Group 20 minutes

Computational Thinking Learning Goal

This activity introduces the concept of debugging:

1. Check Your Steps. Figure out if there’s a problem.

2. Make It Work. Come up with a way to fix it.

Math Concepts

• Ordinality

• Identifying and creating patterns

Materials

• Debugging Poster

• Monkey Dance Cards

Preparation

• Make 3 copies of the Stomp and Clap cards and 1 copy of the Spin card

• Tape 1 Stomp card and 1 Clap card next to each other on the wall. Make sure there’s enough room on the wall for the remaining cards—you’ll be adding more during the activity.

• Tape the Debugging Poster to a wall

Introduce the Activity (5 minutes)

1. Tell the children that they are going to learn how to do the Monkey Dance. Point to the two cards taped to the wall and say:

• These are two steps in the dance: first you Stomp, then you Clap. Say it with me: Stomp-Clap.

• Let’s try it! (Show the children the dance steps, then have them do them.)

2. Tape two more Stomp and two more Clap cards next to the first Stomp-Clap cards to make a pattern (Stomp-Clap, Stomp-Clap, Stomp-Clap). Say:

• Let’s make a pattern with the Stomp-Clap steps. We’ll do it three times.

• Say the steps with me as we do the dance. (Stomp-Clap, Stomp-Clap, Stomp-Clap)

Dance Card

CLAP

Dance Card

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In this activity, children learn a two-step dance.

They debug the dance when they notice the

steps are done incorrectly. They check their steps to figure out the mistake and then make it work!

3. Tell the children:

• Today you’re going to check my Monkey Dance to see if I make any mistakes.

4. Point to each line of the Debugging Poster and say:

• When you check my dance steps and help me find problems, we practice debugging. Say it with me: DEBUGGING!

Check Your Steps! (5 minutes)

1. Pointing to check your steps on the poster, tell children:

• Let’s do the first step of debugging: check your steps.

• Let’s say it together: Check your steps! Check your steps!

2. Have children watch you do the Monkey Dance. Do the dance steps incorrectly, so the pattern becomes: Stomp-Clap, Stomp-Clap, Stomp-Spin. Ask:

• Did I do the steps correctly?

• Can anyone tell what’s wrong with my dance steps? (The last step was Spin instead of Clap.)

Make It Work! (8 minutes)

1. Point to the second step on the Debugging Poster and say:

• Make it work is the second step in debugging.

• Let’s say it together: Make it work! Make it work!

• Now that we know which part of my Monkey Dance isn’t working, let’s make it work by fixing my steps.

2. Encourage children to talk about how to fix the dance.

• How can I change my dance to make it work? (Follow the steps on the Dance Cards. Make the last dance step a Clap instead of a Spin.)

• Can you help me by saying the steps and pointing to the Dance Cards while I dance? (You might have one child point to each step as the rest of the group says the step.)

3. Do the dance correctly as children say the pattern and point to the Dance Cards.

DEBUGGING1. Check Your Steps!

2. Make It Work!

DEBUGGING1. Check Your Steps!

2. Make It Work!

4. Reflect on the activity. Ask:

• How did you check my steps?

• What did we do to my dance to make it work?

Then put on some music and do the Monkey Dance together.

Wrap It Up! (2 minutes)

End the activity with the debugging chant:

• Today we practiced debugging. The first step of debugging is check your steps. The second step of debugging is make it work.

• Say it with me: Check your steps! Check your steps! Make it work! Make it work!

Extend the PlayTry repeating the steps above using the Flap and Spin cards. Or create a dance with a three-step repeating pattern (e.g., Stomp-Clap-Flap). You can also have the children work in small groups to create their own original 2-step dances. Then they can teach the dance steps to each other, check each other’s steps, and correct mistakes to make it work.

Dance Card

FLAP

Dance Card

SPIN

Dance Card

FLAP

Dance Card

SPIN

Funding provided by the National Science Foundation. This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 1640135. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.© 2019 WGBH Educational Foundation. All rights reserved.

Public media producers from WGBH and Kentucky Educational Television (KET), and researchers from the Education Development Center (EDC), collaborated on the project Integrating Computational Thinking into Mathematics Instruction in Rural and Urban Preschools.

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